It's a Go!

The 2011 Aussie Millions generated a huge buzz by announcing that they intended to run a $250,000 buy-in event, the first-ever with such a hefty price tag. The list of players able to risk that much money one shot is obviously a very short one, but it just so happens that most of them are here in Australia right now with the cash burning a hole in their pockets. We've just now learned that the Super High Roller is, in fact, a go with a staggering thirteen players confirmed to play.

Team Full Tilt is sending five heavyweights to the felt with Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Chris Ferguson, Erik Seidel, and John Juanda all confirmed to play. They'll be joined by the three Chinese businessmen that we became acquainted with in the Million Dollar Cash Game earlier this week -- Richard Yong, Wang Qiang, and Paul Phua. Those eight players have been fairly safe locks to play for about a week now, but the tournament has recently begun to attract more sharks from the nearby waters.

Within the last hour, another handful of players have added their names to the docket. Nikolay Evdakov, Tony Bloom, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Sam Trickett will also be joining this expensive party, and the field is coming together literally as we type right now. Annette Obrestad has just become the thirteenth player to add her name to the confirmed list (while playing a short-handed 2/5 NL game in the casino, no less), and Andrew Feldman appears to be a near-lock to play as well.

We've also heard rumors that Dan "jungleman12" Cates and James Obst are considering the chance to get in on the action, and this event is shaping up to be seriously legendary. It's possible we could have as many as 16, maybe even 20 players each putting up a quarter-million dollars for a friendly game of cards on Thursday.

This $250,000 Super High Roller is a one-day event scheduled to begin at noon, and it's winner take all. Because it was originally scheduled as such, that payout structure will stay in place unless the players decide to change it. The staff tells us that the players will have a lot of input about the way the payouts end up being handled, but for now, it's winner take all, end of story.

Australia is just about to head to bed for the night, but tomorrow will dawn with the richest poker tournament the world has ever seen. That's pretty exciting stuff, right? If you can't be here to rail this history-making event for yourself, you know where to find non-stop coverage from start to finish!

We're going to need a power nap before this thing gets rolling, but we'll see you back here in the morning.